Growing Gills

I have been a swimming fiend the past week or so.  I have made it a point to get to the pool every chance that I can get, well not exactly every chance but at least on my way to work every day.  One of my primary goals for this off-season is to get better in the water, which shouldn't be difficult since I have started so early in the year.  In all of my previous years of triathlon I haven't stepped foot in water until Memorial Day at the very earliest, but normally not until July 1st to be more realistic.  That didn't leave me with a whole lot of time to get ready for my first race....I was always completely gassed after the swim leg of the NJ State Triathlon.

This are going to be different this year, I am going to transform the swim portion of the triathlon from a suffer-fest into a almost-strength.  I am going to emerge from the water fresh and ready to crush the bike.  Am I going to turn into Mark Spitz (had to show my age a bit....Michael Phelps would have been the easy choice)?  Will I be growing gills?  Hell no, but I am not going to be the guy in the water who is simply looking to avoid drowning and getting out of the water (who am I kidding....that will always be me).

So what has happened since my last post....Friday I got in a solid 1,100M swim along with a 4.3 mile run (8:00/mile pace).  Saturday I opted to rest since I had a race on Sunday, plus me and the family headed down to Lavallette, NJ to see my 'rents.  It was great to head up to the beach and see the ocean.  I took some pictures with my new camera, I will have to post some when I get home. 

Sunday, as is always the case in the winter, is race day.  I had the Honest Abe 4.6 Mile in Tyler State Park, another Sunday of ascents and descents.  I arrived at the race site about 40 minutes before the start and decided to do a two mile warm-up along the creek.  Why two miles?  Well, I usually do a 1/2 mile for the longer races and a mile for the shorter, but since I have a 15K next weekend and a half-marathon in three weeks, I thought it would be good to get some extra miles in just to be better prepared.  As for the actually race?  It was a tough one, I wasn't feeling all that fresh.  My legs were a bit sore and my breathing a bit labored.  About three miles into it I decided that I was going to just hold on and take it easy the rest of the way.  My hamstrings were finally feeling better and I didn't want to risk hurting myself so early in the year.  I ended up finishing in 31:29 (6:50/mile), much better than I could have expected...and with me not pushing myself for the last 1.6 miles.  I looked back at my times for this same course over the past two years and I was only about 15 seconds off those times.  So I would say that immediately following the race I was a little bummed that I couldn't have finished stronger, but now looking back I am very pleased with my effort and hope to put in a good performance this coming weekend.

Yesterday was a pool day, 1,100M of back and forth in the H2O.  I tried to swim a bit farther with less rest.  I think I managed a 300M stretch where my arms didn't turn to spaghetti (yee haw!).  I decided not to run at lunch because I was a bit sore from the Sunday race and the fact that is was a friggin' monsoon out there.  I planned to get on my bike and put in 30 minutes and just loosen up my legs after the girls went to bed, but that didn't happen either.  I was just too tired and I think I fell asleep by around 10:00PM.

Today I was up at 5:00AM, and in the pool by 5:50AM.  I swam the farthest yet this year, 1,250M (25:58) and had a good time doing it.  I did a 400M warm-up and then did 12 x 50M w/:15 rest (averaged just under 1:00/100M).  I finished with a very slow and easy 250M.  Lunch time is probably going to be a 4 - 5 mile run with the guys (or solo).

That's it for now.....looking forward to getting in two to three more days in the pool this week and hoping that I begin to grow some gills soon.   Ciao!